Democratic National Convention Countdown!

Didn't post yesterday, so double-rich DNC goodness today.

Seventy-four and/or 73 days until the convention.

There's going to be more than one moonbat convergence in town during the DNC. Penny Parker:

Expect to see bold-face names [that's famous people to you hicks] from Hollywood, television, journalism, commerce and politics gathering in Denver for the 2008 Symposia of the Rockies, a series of think-tank discussions that will be open to the public Aug. 25-27 during the Democratic National Convention.

A secret source leaked me an impressive list of confirmed attendees, and Jim Polsfut, head of the symposia series confirmed the participants. Here's the list so far: CBS' The Early Show co-host Harry Smith; An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David; media mogul Ted Turner; Google Inc. exec Andrew McLaughlin; former FCC chief economist Michael Katz; Level 3 VP Don Gips; Time Warner Telecom Inc. EO Larissa Herda; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; New York Times columnist Tom Friedman; former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle; and former U.S. Senator from Colorado Tim Wirth.

Singer Bonnie Raitt and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano have also RSVP'd to attend, according to my spy, but Polsfut couldn't 100 percent confirm those names. And invites are still out to U2 lead singer Bono and others that Polsfut declined to name.

No more reason to live:

Invited but not able to attend is heartthrob actor George Clooney, who will be out of the country during the DNC, according to his L.A.-based publicist, Stan Rosenfield. That cracking you hear is the sound of hearts breaking throughout Colorado.

The symposia, which will cover topics including global poverty, wellness and prevention, economy, technology, social security and retirement, emergency preparedness and the climate, will take place in the Boettcher Concert Hall, and The Space and Ricketson theaters.

"We're working on opportunities for Coloradans to be represented and see some of these distinguished inviduals," Polfsut said, but details on ticket sales aren't set. "This is a citizens' initiative of individuals who realize a lot of very important and engaged people will be coming to Denver — some of them Democrats and some not — because of this historic event. They will sit down with each other at round tables, and a lot of Coloradans are going to see it happening."

Wow. Round tables.

Ridin' on a smile and a shoeshine:

Mayor John Hickenlooper has crisscrossed the nation and met with a Who's Who of deep-pocketed potential donors since March 2007 raising money to host the biggest political convention in Denver in 100 years.

The mayor put his salesmanship to the test before a bevy of heavy hitters, from Loews Hotels' Chairman Jonathan Tisch in New York to real estate magnate Walter Shorenstein in San Francisco.

The coast-to-coast fundraising to put on the Democratic National Convention Aug. 25-28 has included several stops inland, too.

Last May, the mayor spent two days in Las Vegas and made a pitch to "construction king" Irwin Molasky and his son, Steven, among others.

Six months later, Hickenlooper jetted to Fort Worth, Texas, and tried to shake money loose from billionaire Edward Bass, one of the world's richest people.

In all, the mayor has embarked on 20 fundraising trips, including a visit this week to Kansas City, Mo., according to an accounting of the mayor's DNC-related travel.

The Denver 2008 Host Committee is under contract to raise $40.6million by Monday.

They're not going to make it, apparently:

Continuing struggles to raise cash for the Democratic National Convention forced the suspension of a national media event scheduled for Thursday at the Pepsi Center, multiple sources said, according to Denver Post reporter Chuck Plunkett [swoon--ed.].

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced Friday morning that it had postponed the Spring Media Walkthrough, a meeting designed to give the hundreds of media organizations that will cover the convention important logistical information.

An earlier story in the Rocky quoted host committee member Chris Lopez saying that it wasn't due to money. A comment there has the best name I've run across for Hick: Mayor Chickenpooper. (Update: LGF sez, "Let's put these people in charge of the country.")

Don Surber has a song parody about R68 and the legendary crap cannon. To the tune, somewhat reluctantly, of "Born to be Wild":

Get your love beads on, man
Head to Colorado
Lookin’ for a protest
Re-create Chicago

Yeah Darlin’ just like ’68
With Social Security checks
Make some noise and demonstrate
And demand some respect

I just heard a rumor
Cops have a new weapon
Play a frequency
And cause a bowel movement

Yeah Darlin’ they’ll make crap happen
Make stuff come out of your back end
Fire all of your guns at once
Better wear some Depends

Like a South Park cartoon
They can crap zap protesters
We will drop a load
I will be embarrassed

Don’t crap zap me, bro.
Don’t crap zap me, bro.

I am not making any more Depends jokes.

The owner of a well-known diner along the parade route is angry:

The owner of the Denver Diner may have a national network camped out in his restaurant during the convention.

But he wonders if he'll have any customers.

"This is gonna kill me," said George Skordos, who has owned the city landmark at Speer and Colfax since 1990.

Skordos shook his head Thursday as he surveyed the proposed protesters' parade route, which appears to effectively shut down access to the storied diner.

Storied because it's a late-night hangout for a rather, shall we say, raffish crowd.

Indymedia does media training for DNC protest groups and other lefties:

Saturday, June 14th more than 20 media activists gathered together at the Five Points Media Center in the offices of Free Speech TV to learn how to be the media. Colorado Indymedia conducted the training in the hopes that grassroots activists could begin to document their own stories and struggles during the Democratic National Convention.

Preparing participants to use video, radio, photo, print, and web tools to document the protests and participation in the Democratic National Convention, trainers presented a wide variety of tools and techniques for grassroots journalism and production.

Participants included members of: Coloradans for Immigrant Rights, Recreate 68, Unconventional Action, Colorado Indymedia, Free Speech TV, KGNU, Indymedia Newsreel.